[Untitled]
On this sixteenth day of March, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, before me, David Eckstein, Consul of the United States of America, for the Province of British Columbia, Dominion of Canada, residing at the Port of Victoria, Vancouver Island, personally appeared Albert Henry Guild, who, being first duly sworn, states as follows:
My age is fifty-eight years; my residence, Victoria, Vancouver Island, and have resided here since the year eighteen hundred and fifty-eight; my occupation is that of merchant.
*I am familiar with the route of travel by water, by steamers and sail-vessels, British and American, from Victoria to points on the Gulf of Georgia and Fraser river.[80] Affidavits on the canal de Haro.
The canal de Haro is the channel now exclusively used by all classes of vessels, British and others, carrying pilot or no pilot, in making trips between the above-named points, and has been so used, to the best of my knowledge, since eighteen hundred and fifty-eight.
During my residence at Victoria I have frequently passed through [Page 162] the canal de Haro as passenger in Hudson Bay Company’s steamers; and, in fact, I never knew them to use any other channel in making trips to and from the above-named points.
Vessels coming into the Straits of Juan de Fuca from the ocean, bound for ports or places on the Gulf of Georgia or Fraser River, invariably pass through the canal de Haro, whether touching at Victoria or not, and have done so since my residence here in eighteen hundred and fifty-eight.
[SEAL.]